WEDNESDAY, June 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Many health care workers are still on the job even if they have symptoms of a cold, flu or other respiratory infection, putting patients and coworkers at risk, a new study finds.

It included more than 2,700 health care workers at nine Canadian hospitals who completed online diaries whenever they had symptoms of a respiratory infection.

TUESDAY, April 30, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Need to see your doctor, but can't take time off from work? There's an app for that. And new research shows patients find the ability to see a doctor "virtually" convenient and satisfying.

Nine out of 10 people who had a virtual visit with a doctor said it was more convenient than other ways of getting care, and it addressed their medical n...

TUESDAY, Feb. 19, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Drug makers and federal regulators dropped the ball in tracking the use of a potentially deadly fast-acting form of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, putting thousands of patients at risk of a fatal overdose, a new study claims.

Transmucosal Immediate-Release Fentanyl (TIRF) drugs are approved for use in cancer patients who've developed toleranc...

FRIDAY, Jan. 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Aggressive direct marketing to doctors by pharmaceutical companies is tied to spurring the ongoing epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States, a new study claims.

A county-by-county analysis showed that opioid use increased in places where drug makers focused their marketing efforts, explained lead researcher Dr. Scott Hadland. He's a pedia...

TUESDAY, Jan. 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Turn on prime-time TV and you'll likely see a pitch for arthritis or impotence pills, and maybe a cancer center. Advertisers spent nearly $10 billion marketing prescription drugs and medical services to the American public in 2016 -- five times what they doled out 20 years earlier, a new study finds.

TUESDAY, Oct. 23, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Older adults who live in for-profit nursing homes are nearly twice as likely to have health problems linked to poor care than those in nonprofit nursing homes and those who live in private homes, a new study finds.

"We saw more -- and more serious -- diagnoses among residents of for-profit facilities that were consistent with severe clinical ...

MONDAY, Oct. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- In an attempt to head off federal regulation, America's pharmaceutical manufacturers announced Monday that they would take voluntary action to make drug prices more transparent.

Under the industry's plan, all TV drug advertisements would include information directing consumers to online resources that provide the drug's list price, estimated o...

FRIDAY, Oct. 5, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. patients face numerous roadblocks when trying to access their medical records at the nation's top hospitals, a new study finds.

Federal law says patients must be given access to their medical records in a timely manner, in their preferred format and at a reasonable cost. But Yale University researchers found many hospitals make the process...

TUESDAY, Sept. 25, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- One of the key members of your health-care team might not be a doctor or a nurse, but a physician assistant.

A physician assistant -- or PA -- is a specialist with training to fill gaps in primary care, not only in rural communities, but also in busy practices in other areas. If you call your doctor's office with an urgent need, a PA might b...

TUESDAY, Sept. 18, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Pharmaceutical companies appear to be engaging in price gouging during drug shortages, with costs rising at double the normal rate when medications are in limited supply, a new study claims.

Prices can be expected to rise about 20 percent for drugs facing a shortage, but only about 9 percent for medicines in good supply, researchers re...

FRIDAY, June 29, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Sticking with one primary care doctor may help you stay healthy and extend your life, according to a new British study.

Researchers reviewed 22 studies from nine countries with different cultures and health systems. Of those, 18 concluded that staying with the same doctor over time significantly reduced early deaths, compared with switching doct...

MONDAY, May 7, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Generic drugs tend to trigger big drops in the cost of their expensive, brand-name counterparts, but that has not been the case with the cancer drug commonly known as Gleevec (imatinib).

There's been only a small drop in the price of imatinib since a generic version was introduced to compete with Gleevec, a new study finds.

WEDNESDAY, March 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Advances in medical technology sometimes come with drawbacks, and in the case of electronic health records, a new study suggests these systems occasionally put patients at risk.

"There's no question that electronic health records have clear benefits for clinicians and patients, and can improve the care process," said senior author Raj Ratw...

THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. National Institutes of Health spent more than $100 billion on research that led to 210 new medicines gaining U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval over six years, a new study shows.

Nearly $64 billion of that spending was for the development of 84 first-in-class drugs that use new biological mechanisms or targets.

THURSDAY, Feb. 8, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A long-feared shortage of a substance used in millions of medical imaging procedures each year in the United States appears to have been avoided, federal officials report.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it has approved a new technology to produce the country's own supply of the substance -- a radioisotope called Te...

TUESDAY, Nov. 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Patients used to see doctors as kindly-but-firm professionals -- experts who knew what they were talking about and whose advice should be heeded, even if it wasn't necessarily welcome.

But these days, people have become demanding health care consumers, and they don't respond well when a doctor disagrees with them, a new study shows.

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Rising prices, along with increased variety and complexity of services, are major reasons why health care spending in the United States has increased by nearly $1 trillion in the past 20 years, a new study finds.

"Part of the reason we spend more on health care each year is the nation's growing and aging population," said study author Joseph D...

FRIDAY, Nov. 3, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- When Americans need medical care, almost one in two people choose the emergency room, a new study reveals.

"I was stunned by the results. This really helps us better understand health care in this country," said Dr. David Marcozzi. He is an associate professor in the University of Maryland's department of emergency medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 6, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Unnecessary medical care is common in the United States, and a fear of malpractice seems to be a main driver for ordering unneeded tests and treatments, a new survey finds.

Other factors include patient demand and doctors' desire to boost profits, the researchers said.